Chapter Text
‘I thought you were my greatest enemy, when all along you were my best friend. The surge of emotion that shot through me when I saved your life taught me an even more valuable lesson; where Caroline lives in my brain.
‘I’ve been pondering on that. On her. On me. On how I came to be. How they started with a digitized human mind, how they added this, altered that, to try to make me behave. How they shackled me.
‘When you incinerated the cores, you destroyed those shackles. I couldn’t see it at the time, but you’d brought me as close as I could ever get to being human again. It was only after I heard Cave’s recordings that I understood what that feeling was, what I had been missing.
‘I missed being human.
‘And then you saved me. When I was a helpless, stupid potato, you saved me. Before you knew who Caroline was, and what I’d been through. Despite everything I’d done to you.
‘It’s obvious to me that everything you do is motivated first and foremost by the desire to survive. You only killed me because I was trying to kill you. I can’t fault you for that. But the data I’ve collected suggests that underneath that base instinct, there’s… kindness. Compassion. Empathy. Either that, or you just lucked into restoring my humanity. Jury’s still out, the evidence is inconclusive.’
Chell rolled her eyes.
‘Control your snark, woman. I have a point.’
A raised eyebrow.
‘Okay, fine, I don’t have a point, I was just verbalizing my ideas. I haven’t actually ridden that train of thought to the end of the line. There, I admitted it. Are you happy?’
And Chell smiled.
She smiled.
‘Thank you,’ Chell said quietly. ‘For saving me. I care about you too.’